El Niño: Beyond the Hype

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t’s a year that will go down in the history books: perhaps the strongest El Niño ever recorded. Perhaps a record year for precipitation, after years of record-breaking drought. Almost certainly the warmest year ever recorded. In this special, reader-funded series, Bay Nature goes beyond the media hyperbole of the “Godzilla El Nino” to explore what this phenomenon means — and doesn’t — for Northern California.

This series has been funded by donations from Bay Nature readers. Please help us by sharing our work, or donate today to support our mission to explore the natural world of the Bay Area.

The explanation for El Niño has been revealed only slowly, piece by piece over a century, as dedicated researchers in far-flung locations searched for explanations for the droughts and deluges they witnessed.El Nino

The Galapagos damselfish exists only in the specimens collection at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, the victim of an unusually strong El Nino. Thoughts on the fish, and its lessons in a changing world.Wildlife: Birds, Mammals, Fish